Lia Pereira received her MSc in Mechanical Engineering in December 2010 in the University of Aveiro. During her studies, she spent two semesters at the University of Vienna in Austria in the field of biomechanics. For her master's thesis, she analysed thin-walled multimodular structures for aeronautics. With the aim of promoting aerospace engineering at the University of Aveiro. After her studies, she entered the labour market in the automotive industry, implementing the defect marking system at Volkswagen Autoeuropa, designing automotive equipment and components. She emigrated to Stuttgart, Germany, to take part in the European Union's Marie Curie project, where she was responsible for designing a device for visually impaired subjects to connect to a computer, thus ensuring that they could continue their professional careers after losing their sight. In Germany, she decided to broaden her knowledge and began studying Corporate Management at the Technical University of Munich and then, back in Portugal, continued her studies in this field at ISEG. After several years of professional experience and as a female engineer and a full member of the Order of Engineers, she embraced a new challenge: a PhD in Engineering and Management at IST, with the theme "Tracing the Progress of Female Engineers in Portugal: A Comparative Study Across Genders and Professional Fields to Guide Policy Decision-Making", with supervisor Rui Miguel Baptista and co-supervisor António Sérgio Ribeiro.